How to setup a slide guitar?

[Driver Blues]

Good afternoon,

I have a Telecaster setup in standard tuning.

I want to set it up for open G slide guitar. What do I need to do the set it up for that?

 

[ICTGoober]

Tune the strings to a G chord and dust your broom!

 

[Mincer]

Generally, the action is a little higher for dedicated slide guitars, and usually thicker strings. But slide is really a folk tradition- it has been done a bazillion different ways. Different tunings, guitars, string heights, etc.

 

[jeremy]

heavier strings and higher action help keep things sounding clean and clear, especially when learning, but billy gibbons plays slide on 8's. there are no rules, just find out what works for you and run with it

if you are going to keep this guitar in open g permanently (or at least for the foreseeable future), id mess with string gauges. for example when i had a guitar setup in open e, i used 11/14/17/26/36/50 rather than 11/14/18/28/38/50 since i was tuning the g up 1/2 step, and a & d up a whole step.

are you new to slide or just wanna mess with open g?

 

[Mincer]

That's the thing- if you are going to seriously pursue learning, make sure you dedicate a guitar to it. It is no fun constantly re-tuning.

 

[jeremy]

i play slide a lot, as much as anyone on here im sure, and i basically only play in standard tuning so i dont have switch guitars or re-tune. if you are going to play in open g for example, dave is right, you should dedicate a guitar to that tuning

 

[Jermo3178]

My hats off to you...
I'd love to learn slide. I know a ton of guitarist in my town... not one of them knows how to play slide.

I bought a nut extender for the purpose. May be something to look into also?

 

[Sam SG]

I have a Southern Rock band and I play all the slide guitar in it.
I dont set my guitars any special way.
I just play on my standard axe(SG,Lp Jr) and then I have one tuned to open A(Epi SG classic P90)
I use a heavy brass slide...befor that pyrex.
Thats it for me.
Btw if you are just learning. When i started i used a pyrex slide and i would wrap a single layer of packaging tape around it( NO BUBBLES). That helped reduce the wooshy sound till i learned to control the slide better